This invention pertains to improvements in container cleaning apparatus, and for convenience will refer to bottles that require cleaning prior to reuse or bottles being introduced for the first time to usage.
In the prior patent of Nekola et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,131 granted Nov. 19, 1963 there has been disclosed fluid injecting means for cleaning bottles where the bottles are confined to move along a fixed path while the spray injection means is caused to move periodically toward and away from the bottles, as well as with and reverse to the bottle movement. The apparatus is subject to excessive wear and the motions required develop erratic and jerky responses so the cleaning results are not assured. The prior apparatus was arranged such that heavy masses were required to be moved with two distinct cyclic motions that introduced wear on the mechanism needed to produce the motions. It is also disclosed in said prior patent that the fluid supply arrived in hoses that had to be flexible and were subjected to the hostile enviroment of the rinsing fluid and compound movements and had a short service life.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide apparatus that avoids the motion problems referred to and can operate at greater speed to yield a higher throughput per unit of time.
It is a further object to provide jet spray arrays for multiple bottle jetting with means to limit the motion of the the spray to one that is generally horizontally cyclic, and to employ a continually moving drive for the bottle carriers with sufficient looseness or slack in the area of the jet sprays such that the carriers are movable in a vertically oscillating cycle while advancing in regular order.
Another object of this invention is to provide common drive means for obtaining proper coordination between the horizontal cyclic motion of jet spray means with vertical cyclic motion of the carrier for the bottles to be jet cleaned and to incorporate counterbalancing means capable of storing energy at times during the vertical cyclic motion of the heavy assembly for moving the carriers.
A further object of this invention is to avoid the use of large lengths of flexible conduit and to minimize the replacement problem attendant upon conduits that deteriorate easily.
In a preferred embodiment the apparatus comprises a bottle carrier movable generally horizontally through a spray cleaning zone on supporting means that is adapted to move vertically for raising and lowering the carrier, a fluid spray means movable along a horizontal path in a forward and reverse cycle, and means to drive both the carrier in its vertical motion and the spray means in the horizontal path such that the carrier is enabled to move continuously through the cleaning zone. The apparatus includes means to assure alignment of the bottles and spray means, and counterbalancing means for absorbing the load of the means for lowering the carrier.